immortality Archives - I Take off the MASK!

WHAT WOULD YOU DO IN 1,000 YEARS?

If we could have 1,000 years to live, maybe we wouldn’t be in such a rush now, don’t you think so?

Let’s admit it. At one time or another, we wished to live forever, to have all the time we need in order to do everything we wanted to do. Forever seems too long for our imagination, so why not visualize a thousand years instead?

Given a thousand years to live, what would you do? What difference would it make? To be able to live for more than ten generations and see your great great great grandson, wouldn’t it be amazing to play pretend once in a while?

If I were to live for 1,000 years myself, I’ll probably do the following:

I’d still continue blogging and document what adventures a person can go through in 1,000 years.
I’d continue to strive to have enough passive income to free my time (as if I don’t have enough, haha), and not waste 1,000 years just trying to earn a living.
I’d get rich enough to spend on my travels and further studies.
I’d travel the world with my loved ones.
I’d study arts and music.
I’d learn to cook and make the most tasty mouth-watering dishes.
I’d learn some sports.
I’d discover the wonders of the human mind and teach others what I’ve learned.
I’d probably be a healer.
I’d love like I’ve never loved before.
I’d do what I can to make this world a better place before journeying forth to the next!

Just in case you’re wondering why I’ve listed 11 things instead of the usual 10, I have only 1 alibi. I’d live for 1,000 years, wouldn’t I? 🙂

I’ve asked this same question in my plurk.com network and one reply really got my attention. The person said that given 1,000 years to live, what he wants to do is to look for another person who can live 1,000 years just like him! I liked that answer, nobody would want to be lonely for that long, certainly. How about you? Given 1,000 years to live, what would you do?

To Live Forever

Men have always wanted to live forever. We think as though if we could just find the elixir of life, we’d have also found the potion for eternal bliss. But living forever and living happily forever are two completely different things. In fact, given the chance to really live forever, I believe not few of us would soon regret having taken that chance. What is there to live forever for in 200 years? In 600? In a thousand or in ten thousand years? Wouldn’t we have been tired already of doing the same things over again? Of celebrating the holidays like we’ve always done before? Of doing the routines that would keep us fit, or even of inventing some new way of entertaining ourselves?

At one point or another, maybe we’d arrive at what Solomon says in Ecclesiastes- there is nothing new under the sun. We’d get tired of the cycles we’ve been so happy about before. We’d care not for the showers of spring, nor for the snow that falls in winter. We’d find the meaninglessness of everything. And as Buddhists believe, we’d realize that we’d soon desire to escape the endless suffering we’ve subjected ourselves into. The very thing we’ve desperately desired to possess, the one thing we’d have lusted for would have become our own curse.

For people who seek forever, let a contemplation be made on how that forever is going to be spent and for what need that would serve us all. If not, and if wishes were granted indeed, we may have just been praying for our own hell, a hell we may not be able to escape. There is nothing new under the sun, and everything is passing as this world is whose fate had already been set since its fall. Everything shall come to an end except for one thing, the only thing that needs nothing new under the sun. Indeed, what remains is LOVE, the only thing that yields not to death but makes all things eternal, beautiful and new. 🙂